Successful cult memes induce intense social interaction behaviour between cult members. This trips the attention detectors.

Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environmen.

Anyone who has ever had the feeling of being higher than a kite after giving a public speech is well aware of the effects of attention.

The rare person is still interested in new advances when they are adults. There is possibly a correlation with intelligence. In any case, you have to be fairly bright to keep learning and changing attitudes as you get older.

Attention is the way social primates measure status. It is highly rewarding because it causes the release of brain chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins.

Cults, or related social movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, result in massive military expenses.

Genetic studies in Iceland have found that many of the women who were the founding stock of Iceland came from England and what is now France. Some were probably captured and carried off in Viking raids only 40 generations ago.